Samsung isn’t in the business of manufacturing cars but it surely wants to do something about making cars smarter. That’s one of the reasons why it spent more than $8 billion on acquiring Harman International. It has now announced that a new $300 million fund has been created to focus completely on startups and technologies aimed at developing smarter cars.
The Samsung Automotive Innovation Fund has a $300 million purse for machine vision, smarter sensors, artificial intelligence, automotive safety solutions, and more. Samsung also announced its first major investment as part of this fund.
It’s pouring $89 million in TTTech, a networking and safety control company. It has provided automotive technology to companies like Audi for its flagship A8 sedan. Samsung-owned Harman is also looking to further improve its footing in this market.
It already rakes in 65 percent of its sales from its automotive division which supplies infotainment and satnav systems to a wide variety of car manufacturers.
It has launched a new division which will work closely with Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center Smart Machines to bring consumer electronics and automotive technology closer in order to develop new technologies for smarter and safer connected vehicles.
Samsung is clearly serious about emerging as a leader in this space and while we won’t be hearing any rumors about a “Samsung Car,” we’ll certainly find its tech in smart cars down the road.
Filed in . Read more about Harman and Samsung. Source: businesswire